A Queer Film Classic on I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (Miramax), a quirky, ethereal feminist 1987 film by Canadian director Patricia Rozema about Polly, a socially awkward secretary who takes photographs as a hobby. When her former lover Mary, an artist, comes back into her life, Polly alternates between the growing realisation that she is too old for Mary, and an idyllic dream state in which plain-looking people like her lead passionate lives. Julia Mendenhall, a long-time fan of the film, places it in the context of the history of feminist cinema.